Moscow-based Locum is a Russian web hosting provider with a Russian-language website that sells shared hosting and VDS/VPS virtual servers.
Features and Ease of Use
Locum offers four shared hosting plans and four VPS/VDS plans. The shared hosting plans provide you with:
- Hosting for 2 to 25 websites
- 5 GB to 15 GB disk space
- 2 to 25 databases
- Daily backups
Locum’s own control panel provides an easy interface for managing your hosting, and programming language support is provided for PHP, Python, Django, Ruby on Rails, and CGI.
VPS/VDS plans use Xen virtualization that ensures resources are no oversold. You benefit from easy scaling, flexible setup, instant reboot, and the ability to host unlimited websites with guaranteed allocated resources. You also get the ability to install additional software plus full root access for complete control over your hosting environment.
Locum uses Variti’s DDoS protection and Active Bot Protection (ABP) that doesn’t block IPs, change your code or use captcha, so it shouldn’t put off your visitors. One downside of Locum is that its advertised 99% uptime is lower than the industry average.
Pricing and Support
Locum’s shared hosting plans are cheap. You can pay for them in Russian rubles via credit/debit cards (minimum 150 rubles), WebMoney, QIWI Wallet, and Yandex.Money. Available billing cycles are monthly and yearly, with the three higher plans affording you discounts of up to 11% when you pay annually.
While Locum’s home page advertises a seven-day free test period, other pages mention a fourteen-day test period. Either way, I think this is too short to assess the services.
You can contact Locum’s customer support during working hours on weekdays. 24/7 technical support can also be accessed via the application system on Locum’s website. I’m pleased to say that my questions were answered by email within ten minutes:
Those seeking self-help can look at Locum’s not-recently-updated blog or its extensive FAQ page.
